In the process of shipping one or more articles in a container, a packer typically places some type of dunnage material in the shipping container along with the articles. The dunnage material partially or completely fills the empty space the void volumes around the articles in the container. The dunnage material prevents or minimizes any shifting of the articles in the container and/or cushions the articles in the container during the shipping process. Some commonly used dunnage materials are plastic foam peanuts, plastic bubble pack, air bags and converted paper dunnage.
An exemplary dunnage conversion machine that converts a continuous sheet of paper into a crumpled strip of dunnage is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,676,589. Typically, as the crumpled strip is being discharged from the conversion machine a person, commonly referred to as a packer, guides, pushes and/or folds the crumpled strip into the container. The rapid speed at which the conversion machine can produce dunnage can make the packer's task difficult as well as tedious. Nevertheless, a packer heretofore generally has been needed to ensure that the dunnage properly fills the void around the articles in the container, and further to close and seal the container or at least initiate closure of the container prior to being passed to a case sealer.